Yet another juror was excused from the Cheshire home-invasion trial this afternoon on a day that included dramatic testimony from Dr. William Petit Jr. describing the family's last hours together and the moment he woke up, bloodied and dazed, on the couch.

The juror said the presentation confused him. With the departure of three jurors Monday, the first day of testimony, today's departure leaves a pool 12 jurors and three substitutes.

Earlier in the day, in much-anticipated testimony, Petit described being awakened in the middle of the night on July 23, 2007, after he had fallen asleep in the sun room of the Petits' Cheshire home.

"It was very strange. I remember thinking or feeling, 'ow, ow ow,'" Petit testified. "The next thing I knew I was seated on the sofa."

He wasn't sure if he sat up or if someone sat him up.

It was dark. The lights were off

"And then I felt something warm running down the front of my face," he said.

Petit said he saw two people standing in front of the sofa, one holding a gun with a wide barrel and a thick handle near his waist.

Petit's testimony came during the second day in the trial of Steven Hayes, accused of killing Petit's wife, Jennifer; and their daughters, Hayley and Michaela, during an invasion of their Cheshire home July 23, 2007.

The courtroom was silent except for the pencils of sketch artists busily creating images of Petit on the witness stand. The courtroom — with a capacity of 118 — was packed. Several members of Petit's family appeared to be on the edge of their seats. Every juror stared at Petit as he slowly and steadily gave his account.

Early on, Steven Hayes, on trial in a case that could bring the death penalty, kept his eyes down for much of Petit's testimony and did not appear to look at him.

Petit recalled that he did not have his glasses on when attacked and that he felt blood coming from his head. He was on a blood thinner at the time.

"I was oozing blood rather profusely," Petit said.

The men used plastic strips and rope to tie him.

He said one man seemed to talk the most. At one point, the men said they were going to move Petit from the sun porch. With his face still covered and hands tied, they led Petit to the basement.

"I was very unsteady," Petit said. He guessed that it was about 4 or 5 a.m. because he could hear birds.

Petit said he heard footsteps throughout the house but little else.

"There was really no talking upstairs. I didn't hear anything from Jennifer, Hayley or Michaela."

In the basement, the men took a couch cushion, threw it under Petit and tied him at the waist and other places to a support pole. They also threw blankets — including one of Hayley's graduation quilts — on top of him.

The items appeared to come from different parts of the home.

Dearington showed a photo of the spot near the pole where Petit was held captive. A cushion appeared to be soaked in blood and there was much blood on the floor.

Petit's back was against the pole and he was bound with rope around his waist and chest.

He was lightheaded. Though he managed to move around, his ankles were tightly bound and he could not free his feet. "The whole time I was working to get my hands free," he said.

Petit said one of the men asked him where a safe was. He told them there was no safe. A man also said, "If you give us what we want we won't hurt you."

Much later on, he said, he heard sounds upstairs in the kitchen. It was Jennifer.

"I heard her say she would need to get dressed and to get her purse and checkbook."

He guessed it was between 5:30 and 7:30 a.m., because that is the when the sprinkler system came on.

He also heard Jennifer make the phone call to his medical office to say Petit was sick and would not be in.

Right before Petit was able to free his hands, he heard "some moaning." He also heard three loud thumps, "as if someone was throwing 15- or 20-pound sacks onto the floor" upstairs, Petit said.

"I may have yelled out, " Hey!"

And then someone yelled, "Don't worry, it's going to be all over in a couple of minutes."

He also said he heard a spraying noise.

The voice worried Petit.

"It was a different tone," he testified. "It was much more sinister. This was clearly a change in the tone of voice."

It was then that Petit said he felt a "jolt of adrenaline" and the need to escape.

"I thought, it's now or never because in my mind at that moment, I thought they were going shoot all of us."

But Petit said he could not "take on two guys" with his feet still tightly bound.

He hopped up the stairs leading to an outside basement door and he made it outside where he said he crawled and rolled his body through his yard, through bushes to his neighbor's house.

His neighbor came out and said, "Can I help you sir?" His face was so badly beaten the neighbor did not recognize him.

In the courtroom, Dearington showed a photo of Petit lying on a hospital bed. Blood was on pillows, sheets and towels. A large line of stitches resembling railroad tracks were above his eye.

In wrapping up his questioning of Petit, Dearington asked him if he knew the names Steven Hayes and Joshua Komisarjevsky, the second man charged in the case, before the attack.

"Never heard the names, did not know them," Petit said.

Cross examination of Petit will start at 2 p.m. At that time, Judge Jon C. Blue said he would take up concerns a juror has.

First Witness Today

Petit was the first witness to take the stand in Superior Court this morning. He was wearing a navy blazer, blue shirt and a tie with blue and yellow stripes. He had a Petit Foundation heart pin on his left lapel.

Dearington started his questioning by asking Petit questions about his family, showing a photo of his wife, Jennifer; and their daughters, Hayley and Michaela, on a movie screen.

Petit rattled off the birth dates of his daughters and listed their achievements.

"She did her best to hide what disability she had from everyone around her," Petit said.

of the courtroom, keeping to himself, not talking to anyone, and staring straight ahead. He smiled briefly when Dearington whispered something to him.

Petit was beaten with a baseball bat during the July 23, 2007, break-in, tied up and put in the basement. He escaped, however, and, bloodied, made his way to the home of a neighbor where he tried to summon help.

Petit's voice was clear and composed and his testimony was detailed.

Dearington took Petit back to the day before the killings, a sunny Sunday in July 2007. That morning, he went to church with his wife and Michaela. Hayley was on a trip out of state.

After church, Petit's father called and asked him to play golf in Farmington. When Hayley returned home from her trip, the girls went to Silver Sands beach in Milford.

On his way home from golf, Petit talked to the girls about dinner. They decided they would cook at home. Michaela, who loved to cook, helped prepare the meal.

After dinner, the family talked at the dinner table awhile before cleaning up.

As the girls continued to talk, Petit moved to a couch in the family room and read the newspaper.

At about 10 p.m., the girls went to watch "Army Wives" in the family room.

Tuesday afternoon, Cheshire Sgt. Philip Gianpietro took the stand. He was off duty the morning of July 23, 2007, working an extra-duty job for the water company when he heard on his police radio about a possible home invasion on Sorghum Mill Drive.

After waiting for a construction vehicle to move, Gianpietro rushed to the scene in his private vehicle.

At the Petit home, he could see a Chrysler Pacifica back out of the Petit's driveway, strike a detective's vehicle and hit a stone wall. Gianpietro ran over to the passenger side of the vehicle and ordered the men out.

He said he pointed his firearm at Steven Hayes' head, but the vehicle didn't stop, almost striking another police officer. The vehicle sped down Sorghum Mill Drive out of sight. He then heard a loud crash.

With the car gone, Gianpietro turned his attention to the smoke pouring out of the Petit home.

He said he entered the home through the sun porch but, once inside, could go no further after seeing large flames in a "line of fire."

Gianpietro, a former volunteer firefighter, said the intense line of fire made him think an accelerant had been used.

The flames made it impossible to get in the home to the occupants.

"All of us were yelling," Gianpietro said. "There was no response."

"There was so much fire and so much heat the glass in the panes was just desintegating and falling to the ground," he said.

They tried another door but still there was no entry into the home. "Thick black smoke coming right at us," he said.

He said they tried throwing rocks at the windows, hoping that if anyone was inside, they would show some sign.

Under cross-examination, Gianpietro said he received the police call at 9:31 a.m.

His was the last testimony of the day.

Troubled Juror

The juror dismissed today told court officials that he had concerns about the presentation of evidence. After the lunch break today, Judge Jon C. Blue said the juror appeared agitated and he feared that the juror could contaminate the jury.

Reading from a handwritten note, the male juror said he was confused by the state's presentation of evidence. He said it lacked preparation and was disorganized and the evidence was not explained.

"It's as though the state expects us to have prior knowledge," the juror said. He said he was unable to make authoritative decisions.

Thomas Ullmann, a lawyer for defendant Steven Hayes, wanted to keep the juror, noting that he had never sat through a criminal case before.

"Not everything fits into a perfect puzzle until many witnesses have testified. Can you appreciate that?" Ullmann asked.

"Not entirely," the juror said.

Seconds after Blue excused the juror, another juror sent a note that the judge had to address, delaying the afternoon proceedings even further.

This time, an alternate juror wanted to know how Petit untied himself from the pole at his waist. With the jury seated, Blue told the panel notes about evidence at this stage of the trial are not permitted.

Monday, three jurors were excused for various reasons. Testifying were two bank employees who described how Hawke-Petit approached them, under duress, to withdraw $15,000 from an account there; a police officer who arrived at the Cheshire home; the neighbor whom Petit approached after escaping; and a nurse who worked in Petit's office and took a phone call from his wife early that day to say he would not be coming in.